By: Daniel Vazzoler
The Carleton Place Canadians have started the last third of the regular season looking like a strong force in the CCHL with wins in each of the three games to start 2019, including Sunday’s 4-0 win over the Kemptville 73’s.
Vincent Bujold-Roux made his first start of the new year and carried over his strong performance in the final game of 2018 as he made 26 saves for his first shut-out at Jr. A.
“It feels really good to finally get my first one, the guys made it easy for me and I wasn’t challenged too hard,” he said after the game.
In terms of his strong play recently, Bujold-Roux credits a change in his mentality and a belief that he’s “the best goalie in the world” but also said playing behind a quality team helps make his job easy.
“I’m really happy for Vinny,” added Canadians coach Jason Clarke. “He’s had an up-and-down first half of the season and in the last game before the break, against Kanata, he was very, very good. He got an opportunity [Sunday] to prove to his team-mates that he’s a good goalie and he did just that. His last two starts have been fantastic and we obviously need that going forward for the rest of the year.”
Helping the Canadians get the victory were multi-point games from Cole Beckstead, Eastan Eckert and Alex Bourhas.
Beckstead scored each of the first two Carleton Place goals, although it took a second look at his first goal of the game for Beckstead to get credit for it. Originally, Eckert got credit for the goal but it was changed to Beckstead as he got a stick on the puck to deflect the shot past Jarrett Fiske. There was no doubt about him scoring the second goal, as Beckstead stationed himself in the slot and one-timed the Reece Bolton past Fiske for a 2-0 lead early in the second period.
Beckstead had his night cut short after receiving a misconduct penalty in the third period for sticking up for Bourhas after he was on the wrong end of a hard Jared Patterson hit.
“That’s a typical Cole Beckstead performance,” Clarke said. “He was in the quiet areas, doing the things he’s supposed to do. He’s got a really good stick, reads and reacts really well to certain situations and that’s exactly what he did [Sunday]. He got into the areas he’s supposed to and was a little greasy at times.”
Things weren’t all perfect for Carleton Place on Sunday as the power play struggled, going 0-for-4 while on the man advantage.
“Hats off to Kemptville, they ran a good penalty kill,” Canadians assistant captain Zach Tupker said. “They made it difficult for us and we’ll look at it in practice, take pride in it and get back at it against Hawkesbury.”
The penalty kill, on the other hand, also had a strong game, killing off all four Carleton Place penalties. The penalty killers even chipped in offensively with Zach and Ben Tupker connecting on Ben’s short-handed goal.
The Tupkers have enjoyed playing against Kemptville as indicated by the offensive numbers the two have put up – Ben having five goals and four assists, Zach having seven assists – in the five games the Canadians have played against the 73’s this season.
“To be honest, that’s a good stat, I didn’t even know that,” Zach said. “Pretty surprising actually.”
“They just play hard against everybody. I think the thing that separates Ben and Zach from a lot of players is they never take a shift off,” Clarke added. “They might not be as polished with the puck as some other guys in our league, but they just work so hard. They get in the right areas, they don’t quit on pucks and they’re not afraid to go to the dirty areas as well.”
Carleton Place now has Monday to prepare for a battle at the top of the CCHL standings when they face the Hawkesbury Hawks on Tuesday. Carleton Place will serve as the home team but the game will be played in Kemptville as part of a CCHL showcase day that has all 12 teams in action at the North Grenville Municipal Centre. The Canadians and Hawks are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. on Pad 2 of the arena.
